1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of improper start preventing apparatus for a vehicle that forcefully implements vehicle inhibition, that is, the inhibition of the start of a vehicle, vehicle stop or vehicle deceleration if a driver selects and sets the transmission range to a direction which is different from the direction intended by the driver to start the vehicle in driving at an extremely low velocity upon start or immediately after the start of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in a vehicle such as an automobile, in order to start the vehicle, a driver selects and sets the transmission range to a desirable range position and depresses an accelerator pedal, whereby the vehicle can be started and be accelerated. A driver depresses a break pedal from a vehicle driving state, whereby the vehicle can be stopped or be decelerated.
In this case, in order to reverse an automatic transmission (or AT) vehicle, for example, a driver selects and sets the transmission range position to AT R-range and starts the vehicle. When R-range is set in this way, a notification that the vehicle will reverse is given to the inside of the vehicle (more specifically, an alarm therefor is triggered) Particularly in a large-sized vehicle such as a truck, a notification that the vehicle will reverse is also given to the outside of the vehicle.
Furthermore, if a driver sets to R-range, the line of sight of the driver is detected upon reverse of the vehicle, whereby performing the reverse operation only with a reverse auxiliary apparatus such as a back monitor can be prevented (refer to Patent Document 1).    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2007-233795
The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 assumes the case where the direction intended by a driver to start the vehicle agrees with the setting in the transmission range of the vehicle or the movement of the vehicle. In this case, the driver can perform a driving operation without being surprised and being confused.
However, in some cases, a driver might set to AT D-range from a vehicle stop state (such as N-range or P-range set state) improperly though the driver intends to start toward the rear of the vehicle and must have performed the AT operation to set to R-range actually. In those cases, the vehicle starts to the direction which is different from the direction intended by the driver, causing the vehicle to run out. In particular, a person who is not familiar with vehicle driving or an elderly person may be surprised and be confused by the start of his/her vehicle to the direction which is different from his/her intended direction and may depress the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal by mistake, causing the vehicle to roar away.